ECAR Formula Atlantic 1988

Compared with the drama in the west, Formula Atlantic's eastern division ran smoothly, with sponsorship continuing from HFC, and 1987 runner up Steve Shelton proving his ability with seven pole positions from the ten races, together with three wins, two seconds and a third in his Stuart Moore Racing Swift DB4. Scott Harrington and Eric Lang were Ralt's leading drivers, and Harrington gave the RT4/88 its only HFC series victory at Montreal. However, both swapped to Swifts before the end of the year. After six seasons in which the Ralt dominated North American Formula Atlantic, the RT4-series cars were finally defeated in 1988. The US-built Swift DB4 took the top three places in each championship, took pole position at every race, led nearly 95% of the laps and won 18 of the 20 races.

There was now a stark difference between the strength of the two divisions: in the west 60% the entries were in 1987 or 1988 cars, but in the west that figure was just 33%. In the west, more than half the grid was made up of cars over five years old, compared with 21% in the east. The new Group B which ECAR announced for 1989 to replace their old "flat-bottomed" category, would allow Ralts up to 1984, so most the other division's entries!

The research

All North American Formula Atlantic results have been compiled by Chris Townsend. For the WCAR/ECAR period his primary sources have been On Track magazine, Sports Car (courtesy of Kevan McLurg), and Autoweek. Results sheets, entry lists and qualifying times have been kindly provided by the late Murray McLaren, Tim Fortner, ECAR Series Chief Steward John W. Bornholdt and Jerry Winker. We are also grateful for the help of series organiser Vicki O'Connor, and John Zimmermann.

Most of the cars to appear from 1983 to 1988 were Ralt RT4s but Ralt's production records usually only give the name of the agent. Swift build records, courtesy of the late Murray McLaren, give more detail. Second and subsequent owners have been determined from SCCA log books of owners too numerous to identify individually or from references in On Track to previous owners. More help is needed - if you owned one of these cars or raced in the series, please get in touch.